Newly-published handbook on theory of law presented by OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and its longstanding partner, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, on 20 May 2016 presented a handbook on the theory of law, one of the fundamental legal disciplines, which was developed by a group of prominent researchers from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University under the leadership of Professor Mykola Koziubra.

The handbook offers a rethinking of modern scientific approaches to understanding the role of the state in the process of lawmaking.

“This handbook is unique, as it offers a different concept which was foreign for quite a long time in Ukraine. The handbook introduces a human-centric approach, focusing on various aspects of human rights and rule of law,” said Jeff Erlich, Senior Project Officer at the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

Leading Ukrainian experts on legal theory – Mykola Koziubra, Stanislav Pohrebniak, Oleksiy Tseliev, Yulia Matvieieva – shared their experience in conducting conceptual discussions while developing the handbook.

Andriy Meleshevych, President of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, pointed out that the course on legal theory, developed by the handbook’s authors, had already been successfully introduced into the curriculum for several years. The innovative course promotes shaping the students’ outlook through the prism of universal legal values – the rule of law and inalienable human rights.

The presentation was organized as part of a project aimed at improving legal education and promoting human rights education in Ukraine, implemented upon the request of the Education and Science Ministry, Justice Ministry, as well as leading law universities of Ukraine.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator supports a comprehensive approach to reforming legal education by the means of developing a legal education standard, launching an external test for students entering Master’s degree programmes in law, as well as introducing innovative approaches to the content and methodology of teaching law courses.